Erling Haaland reaction to Phil Foden shows Man City have the perfect front three

As the match ball from the 188th Manchester derby made its way around the Etihad pitch at full-time the question was who it was headed for.

City's latest destruction of their rivals - geographically at least - had resulted in trebles for Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, perhaps the perfect combination for the Blues' brilliant sextet of goals.

With dad Alfie watching in the stands, this was a kind of revenge for the Haaland family. Alfie had been pitchside near to Roy Keane in the build-up but the two never came into contact. While Keane seethed post-match, Alfie was once again a proud dad.

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For Foden, the rivalry is even more personal. As a City fan born in Stockport, he knows what this fixture means. It's taken him a long time to break his drought, but when the first arrived the floodgates opened.

Haaland is more accustomed to hat-tricks, so much so that he's now scored three in three home Premier League games for City, but this time he tossed the ball to Foden with an arm on the back of his neck. Foden is actually two months older than Haaland, but you'd never know it.

The pair have struck up a close bond at City, with Jack Grealish, the fellow member of what is looking like a perfect front three, also included. Pep Guardiola rarely settles on an ideal attack, but this combination looks like a balanced and unpredictable threat.

This was the third time in four games that the trio had started together and those fixtures against Sevilla, Wolves and now Manchester United have produced 13 goals, with Grealish, Foden and Haaland scoring 12 of them.

There looks to be a good balance to City's front five at the moment, with Bernardo and Kevin De Bruyne